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Why bees matter

The importance of bees and other pollinators for food and agriculture










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    Beekeeping opportunity for the smallholders in the cold winter deserts of Uzbekistan 2023
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    Beekeeping (or apiculture) refers to raising the colonies of honey is hives. Honey, wax, pollen, propolis, bee milk and poisons are the most valuable foods and unique raw materials for human health, medicine and pharmaceutical industry. Another important function of beekeeping is to assist in pollination of cross-pollinated crops. Bees are also raised for selling them to individuals interested in beekeeping.
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    Pollination services for sustainable agriculture 2008
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    Pollinators are essential for orchard, horticultural and forage production, as well as the production of seed for many root and fibre crops. Pollinators such as bees, birds and bats affect 35 percent of the world’s crop production, increasing outputs of 87 of the leading food crops worldwide. Food security, food diversity, human nutrition and food prices all rely strongly on animal pollinators. The consequences of pollinator declines are likely to impact the production and costs of vitamin-rich crops like fruits and vegetables, leading to increasingly unbalanced diets and health problems. Maintaining and increasing yields in horticultural crops under agricultural development is critically important to health, nutrition, food security and better farm incomes for poor farmers. In the past, pollination has been provided by nature at no explicit cost to human communities. As farm fields have become larger, and the use of agricultural chemicals has increased, mounting evidence points to a p otentially serious decline in populations of pollinators under agricultural development.
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    Brochure, flyer, fact-sheet
    Bee engaged – Build back better for bees
    20 May 2021, World Bee Day – Get involved
    2021
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    We depend on bees and other pollinators for our existence. They play a vital role in agriculture and global ecosystems by maintaining our food supply and contributing to biodiversity and other ecosystem services. The vast majority of pollinators are wild, including over 20 000 species of bees and many types of butterflies, birds, bats and other insects. However, in many areas, bees, pollinators, and many other insects are declining in abundance and diversity. Most of these drivers are human-induced. The celebration of World Bee Day on 20 May presents an opportunity to call for global cooperation and solidarity to ensure that we prioritize efforts to protect bees and other pollinators, thereby mitigating threats posed to food security and agricultural livelihoods and defending against biodiversity loss and environmental degradation. World Bee Day is also an occasion to raise awareness of how everyone can make a difference to support, restore and enhance the role of pollinators.

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